Now the pub has received a glowing endorsement in being featured in a new list of the Top 100 Bars in Europe for 2025.
The list has been compiled by The European Bar Guide, a resource for ‘exploring, discovering and sharing the greatest pubs and bars in Europe’.
Positioned at number 32 on the list as a new entry for 2025, The Laurieston is described in The European Bar Guide as both a “frozen in time 60’s boozer hidden behind an unprepossessing exterior” and “a wonderful, friendly, communal pub with simple, wholesome delights”.
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The European Bar Guide is the brainchild of Leeds native Jack Anderton, who set up the website and blog in 2017 with the aim of guiding people to the best pubs and bars Europe has to offer.
On his travels over the past eight years, Mr Anderton has visited over 1,300 pubs across Europe, with The Laurieston being his pick of the bunch in Scotland.
He told The Herald: “I visited Edinburgh last January and I visited Glasgow relatively recently in December. We went round nine or 10 pubs and a few of those made our Guide to Europe’s Greatest Pubs & Bars and The Laurieston made our Top 100 Bars In Europe 2025 list. It was by far the standout for me over the weekend.
“I think The Laurieston has got something not many bars have, and I’m not just talking about the interior because it does have a really interesting interior. I think it’s the friendly nature of it and the fact that anybody can really go in there regardless of their background and it has that certain special something where you can mix in with people you’ve never met before and you can make new friends easily. So rather than it just being like a museum with all the 1960s interior, which is interesting in itself, it’s not a museum, it’s a real-life dynamic pub which is still relevant today.”
Mr Anderton revealed that he called in twice to The Laurieston during his trip to Glasgow to visit some of the city’s most iconic watering holes.
The Laurieston pub in Glasgow
He added: “I went to The Laurieston on a Saturday and a Monday. The first time in it was a fairly busy Saturday evening and then I went on a Monday lunchtime when it was fairly quiet. I got to chat to the staff a little bit and they were telling me a bit about the set up and the jukebox and whatever. It’s nice to see a pub in different times of the week where you can get a sense really of what it’s going to be like during different times and with a different audience and so on.
“All pubs are different and you go to them for different reasons. If I was going out with some friends and just socializing for the evening then absolutely The Laurieston would be the one. If I was going to maybe try a few whiskies then maybe I’d go to the Pot Still. If I was going for food maybe elsewhere as well. But if I was just hanging out with friends The Laurieston would be top of the list of the pubs I visited [in Glasgow].
“I also went to The Doublet and I really enjoyed that. It has a similar feel to The Laurieston in that when you are in on a winter’s evening its very atmospheric. It feels like you can just turn around and make a new friend. The Lismore was also really good. In the city centre I went to The Scotia, The State, The Pot Still and The Horseshoe as well. It was a nice selection.”
To see the full list of The European Bar Guide’s Top 100 Bars In Europe 2025, visit https://theeuropeanbarguide.com/top-100-bars-in-europe-2025/